campfireSmoresEaten
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User ID: 2560
campfireSmoresEaten
23d ago
Are you sure Kulak is a man? I've listened to the Kulak podcast and it's a woman's voice. Voice changer? Just a very convincing fake voice?
I was very surprised, but I guess some of the essays are about subjects which a woman might theoretically be more likely to write about than a man.
campfireSmoresEaten
10mo ago
Congratulations! (don't circumcise, his body his choice)
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Prediction markets could theoretically help both sides of this issue.
campfireSmoresEaten
10mo ago
Is the American approach to reporting such events to broadcast things loudly? I just read a manga (Don't Call It Mystery) which claimed that America doesn't broadcast crimes that could invite copycats. Which seemed wrong to me.
campfireSmoresEaten
11mo ago
I only see one comic writer advocating a boycott in that link, Gail Simone just said "You have my pity. May you grow a soul someday, because you desperately are in need of one."
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Fat women can be charming, within a certain threshhold. They have a certain gravitas about them (pun not intended, believe it or not).
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
You live in Japan? Are you Japanese? What's your story?
The thing that makes the path forward plausible is people acknowledging the problem and contributing to the solution, just like any other problem that requires group action.
I don't think you actually live your life this way. You're just choosing to do so in this case because it's more convenient / for the vibes.
Think of every disaster in history that was predicted. "We could prevent this disaster with group action, but I'm only an individual and not a group so I'm just going to relax." Is that really your outlook?
If there was an invading army coming in 5 years that could be beaten with group action or else we would all die, with nowhere to flee to, would you just relax for 5 years and then die? Even while watching others working on a defense? Are the sacrifices involved in you contributing to help with the problem in some small way really so extraordinary that you don't feel like making a token effort? Is the word 'altruism' such a turn-off to you? How about "honor" or "pride" or "loyalty to one's people"? How about "cowardice" or "weakling"? Do these words shift anything for you, regarding the vibes?
Edit: I'm not trying to be insulting, just trying to call attention to the nature of how vibes work.
People do pro-social things not just because of the fear of punishment for not doing them, but because they understand that they are contributing to a commons that benefits everyone, including themselves.
For the record, it wouldn't be that hard to solve this problem, if people wanted to. Alignment is pretty hard, but just delaying the day we all die indefinitely with a monitoring regime wouldn't be that hard, and it would have other benefits, chiefly extending the period where you get to kick back and enjoy your life.
Question: Are there any problems in history that were solved by the actions of a group of people instead of one person acting unilaterally that you think were worth solving? What would you say to someone who took the same perspective that you are taking now regarding that problem?
And the "Are the sacrifices involved in you contributing to help with the problem in some small way really so extraordinary that you don't feel like making a token effort?" question is worth an answer to, I feel.
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Why is that stupid?
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
I'm back with a new account! Glad to see this place is still active.
campfireSmoresEaten
11mo ago
Ah.
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
The human brain is a "chinese room". Also AI has done many agentic things. Any definition of agentic that would exclude everything an AI has done would be so strict as to be obviously fragile and not that meaningful.
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Quick list of bullet points. You don't have to read them. I realize you didn't ask me to give you a summary. I understand this is perhaps a strange or unpleasant subject, but silence has historically been how a variety of horrible things have gone on for as long as they did.
- Sensitivity and sexual function:
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The foreskin has densely packed nerve endings.
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The foreskin prevents the penis from being desensitized (keratinized) by continuous contact with fabric.
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The foreskin's gliding motion functions as a physical lubricant which is beneficial to both partners.
In most circumcised men, the most sensitive part of the penis is the circumcision scar. Most circumcised men do not realize they have a circumcision scar or what it is.
I could go on about sensitivity but you get the idea.
- Anesthetic:
A lot of doctors and religious functionaries don't use adequate anesthetic, or any anesthetic at all. In my case, no anesthetic was used. If Wikipedia is to be believed on this subject, "It is now accepted that the neonate responds more extensively to pain than the adult does, and that exposure to severe pain, without adequate treatment, can have long-term consequences."
- Risk of a botched circumcision: (somewhat speculative compared to the other two)
Here's a man talking about his botched circumcision: https://youtube.com/watch?v=n-N5XlH3DyU
(He is on the autism spectrum.)
Although circumcision proponents claim the odds of a botched circumcision are very low, there is some evidence to suggest that the risks may not be as low as suggested. A United States anti-AIDs program in Africa called PEPFAR ceased circumcising children below the age of 15 because the rate of botched circumcisions was higher than they could tolerate, and higher the younger the child was.
In the documentary American Circumcision, the suggestion is made that an infant's penis which the doctors claim was always malformed was actually disfigured by circumcision. It's been a while since I've seen it and I forget the evidence presented, but it's conceivable to me that lies of that nature exist and contribute to the supposed rate of botched circumcisions being less than actuality.
A lot of doctors in the US are sort of clueless about intact penises and give erroneous suggestions. Please be skeptical about what they tell you, and about what they don't tell you.
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
It is comforting to read your post, I feel similarly.
Well I don't know if you know this already, but in dath ilan it's implied that "someone wanting to live as if they were a woman and society treats them thusly because that's kinder or more libertarian" and "being a woman" are not the same thing. And it's implied that there are no ftm people (or very few) in that alternate timeline, only mtf. I don't remember where in the dath ilan writings it says those things, and my memory may be unreliable, but there you go. Progressive but subtly Kolmogorov or whatever. But from what I gather subtle things like that are not enough to satisfy you, which I sympathize with. In this week's roundup in response to another comment @Goodguy says that infant circumcision is probably a worse problem in our society than any concerns on this issue, but that people can care about both. And that's how I feel as well.
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Your argument is premised on the assumption that continued AI development only holds a partial risk of human extinction. You're not disagreeing with the airstrike plan, you're disagreeing with the premise that it follows from.
You're also assuming that airstrikes would escalate to nuclear war, but that's a less glaring error.
The choices are: airstrikes -> you might die in nuclear war, no airstrikes -> you definitely die from ai, along with all humanity, but you say that you don't care about that so I don't know why I'm bringing it up
campfireSmoresEaten
1yr ago
Are Cuban-Americans really great or do people who complain about immigrants not complain about them because they're more sympathetic?
Kind of a stupid question, I know.
campfireSmoresEaten
22d ago
Well, shows what I know. Must be a voice changer or something. (That is not the kulak voice I was familiar with)
campfireSmoresEaten
26d ago
Maybe without leaded gasoline the average IQ (or brain health, if IQ is too gross) of the United States would have been raised just enough to prevent this.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/03/03/how-things-even-out
This comedy piece sort of encapsulates how I feel about karma. In the long run, things even out. Maybe a bunch of bad stuff is happening, but good things will happen eventually. Maybe innocent people are being punished now, but in the long run guilty people will get away with stuff, and innocent people will get away with stuff too, and the guilty people will be punished for other stuff, and every permutation thereof.
Except if the human race goes instinct, ofc. Then all bets about future karma are off, so to speak.
campfireSmoresEaten
5mo ago
Well I certainly don't want it to seem like no level of agreement will ever be enough for me.
The claims made in these specific articles are supported by the evidence, which you will see if you read them.
In this case I felt justified in bringing up the subject, because it is the primary organization which is being discussed with respect to foreign aid being paused.
If massive numbers of botched circumcisions isn't a reason to get worked up about the topic, what would be?
campfireSmoresEaten
5mo ago
I think one of us has misunderstood the other. I'm saying what if there never was any corrupted data and the FBI guy was just talking out of his ass?
campfireSmoresEaten
5mo ago
The j6 pipe bombs could have been planted by a foreign adversary, couldn't they have?
I don't think that's a fair representation of what it says on the wikipedia page.
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